BIRMINGHAM today remained a BNP-free zone despite an election night shambles when a candidate from the right-wing party was wrongly named as a winner.

BIRMINGHAM today remained a BNP-free zone despite an election night shambles when a candidate from the right-wing party was wrongly named as a winner.

The city's electoral system was plunged into chaos yet again as BNP candidate Sharon Ebanks was officially declared the victor in the Kingstanding ward.

But an hour later at 2.30am embarrassed City Council chief executive Stephen Hughes announced that officials had made a mistake - and she had actually come third.

The authority will now need to apply for a court order to confirm the correct result.

Mr Hughes said: "I believe the result declared at the count in the Kingstanding ward was wrong. However, in law, I cannot declare the correct result without a court order.

"I will seek this order at the earliest opportunity so that the result can be corrected. It appears that an error in the calculation resulted in the BNP candidate being declared elected when, in fact, she should have been placed third.

"The correct result was that both the Labour candidates should have been elected."

The bungle comes just a year after Birmingham's electoral system was accused of voting fraud which would "shame a banana republic" in a high-profile court case.

Police guarded polling stations in Bordesley Green following a request from Mike Whitby, the leader of Birmingham City Council, for officers to protect ballot boxes.

But the predicted Labour meltdown didn't happen in Birmingham, which bucked the national trend to the Tories by remaining loyal to the Government.

Tony Blair's party is still the largest group on the city council, Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition today remained firmly in power.

The far-right BNP won Chelmsley Wood in Solihull, as well as a seat in Redditch, three new seats in Sandwell and three in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Labour lost overall control of Stoke, Redditch and Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire.